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Hey fam! The Mouse is refusing to recognize the unionization efforts of its production workers. If you’re not familiar with what PAs or PMs do, I’ll outline it briefly. The tl;dr is that NO ANIMATION WOULD GET DONE WITHOUT PRODUCTION WORKERS. They are the glue holding together every single production of your very favorite cartoons!
They take notes in all the meetings with the artists.
They make sure the artists are meeting their deadlines (and showing up to the meetings in the first place).
They help us navigate studio servers to find the files we’re looking for.
They send us our time cards, and make sure we get paid!
Production workers do all this and more, often for minimum wage. The hardships that they suffer as a result–the long hours, the unpaid overtime, the abuses of power–are horrific.
You’d really think that they’d be compensated fairly for these jobs! Can you imagine trying to live in Los Angeles or New York on minimum wage with a job that definitely won’t allow you time to pick up a second or third one??
“I am a man.” - On February 12, 1968, Memphis sanitation workers, the majority of whom were Black, went on strike demanding recognition for their union, better wages, and safer working conditions after two trash handlers were killed by a malfunctioning garbage truck. The strike gained national attention and dragged on into March. Striking workers carried copies of a poster declaring “I AM A MAN,” a statement that recalled a question abolitionists posed more than 100 years earlier, “Am I not a man and a brother?”
I don’t see people talking about this so today is the 110th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in where the factory owners locked working women and girls inside to “eliminate the risk of theft” (in reality it was too keep them from taking breaks), which resulted in the gruesome deaths of 123 mostly immigrant women andgirls and 23 men, many of whom jumped to their deaths from the ninth floor either in a panicked attempt to escape or in order to die quickly. There were reports that some of the workers were on fire already as they jumped.
The eighth floor of the building was able to telephone the tenth floor to warn them about the fire, but the factory on the ninth floor where these women and girls labored had no such communication and such warning.
The factory owners were criminally charged with manslaughter for actions that contributed to the mass deaths but acquitted. However, this tragedy led to mass sympathy to the labor movement, and unions spurred on safety regulations that passed in New York state and eventually the entire country, and activists were able to reduce child labor in the process.
This tragedy is a reminder that has been forgotten in the 110 years since: every safety regulation– every scrap of paperwork contributing to the hundreds of pages of red tape people like to complain about–every word of it was written in the blood of a laborer.
111th anniversary
They were discouraged from breaks because they were actively trying to unionize, and bosses felt that keeping them from unsupervised contact would prevent them from joining the garment workers’ union.
This is why unions are important. This is why today, right now, the biggest companies in America are trying to squash unionization of their laborers and why those workers are fighting so hard to unionize.
@tikkunolamorgtfo did a great write-up a few years ago about the aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, and I highly recommend reading it (and anything else you can about the fire). It is painfully relevant still and it’s incredibly important women’s, Jewish, immigrants’, and workers’ history.
im running so late to this but holy fucking shit this is historic
last thing - while unions are obviously a collaborative effort and this incredible victory is the result of the hard work and sacrifices of many different people i think it’s absolutely essential to highlight the role of ALU’s founder chris smalls rn
chris was fired by amazon in 2020 for organizing a walk-out in the wake of their absolutely criminal handling of covid protocols in staten island. in a meeting with bezos and other amazon execs amazon’s lawyer was caught bragging that he wasnt “smart” or “articulate” enough to organize against them…now he’s helped facilitate the first successful union vote in amazon’s history - eat shit!
As of 12/8/21, Kellogg’s has broken off negotiations with their striking union workers and is electing to permanently replace the strikers. So needless to say, don’t support strike breaking: don’t buy Kellogg’s products. Besides breakfast cereals, Kellogg’s makes Cheez-Its, Pringles, and owns Kashi. I’m sure there’s more that I’m not aware of, so if the hive mind wants to add to the list, please do.
